Creating a Creative Climate

Creativity does not happen in an intellectual vacuum nor in the
emotional icebergs that many companies fashion for themselves.

Research around creative culture and general climate has led to the
identification of key areas on which companies can focus to develop an
effective climate in which people are not only creative, but where they
are motivated to develop these ideas into value-adding contributions to
the success of the whole organization.

If a company wants to become more creative, rather than just
encouraging people or teaching
tools, then perhaps the best way is to
develop the organizational climate. Rather than telling the plants to grow, this is about
tending to the soil in which they can become what they are capable of
becoming.

Motivation

To do anything, people must feel motivated, an internal need to act.
The climate of the organization thus must provide the cues and forces that
lead people into the deep motivation that is required to push through from
idea to end product.

Challenge

People feel challenged, that there is a basic drive to extend their
personal boundaries, develop latent talents and explore new possibilities.

People who feel challenged emotionally engage in their work. It becomes
a part of them, not just something they do. They feel the need to
get out there and act, not just to sit back and dream or mope.

Organizations can challenge people by linking a deep understanding of
individual talents, potential and motivation with the strategic intent of
the company. MBO (Management By Objectives) got itself a bad name in the
1980s, mostly because it was done badly. Done well, it means telling
people what is wanted (the Objectives) and then letting them do it
in any way they see fit. The trick also is in giving high-enough level of
objectives that people feel excited and challenged, not constrained and
directed.

Fun

Having fun is not always realized as being a productive state. Yet look
at little children. Their 'fun' is almost all learning and discovery. We
get this beaten out of at an early stage in school, where learning is
supposed to be serious.

A climate where a certain (child-like, but not childish) playfulness is
in the air lets people try things out without knowing what will happen.

Another important characteristic of a fun-loving culture is humour. You
can see such climates simply through the smiles that people almost always
seem to wear on their faces as they tease and joke with one another. Jokes
are about unexpected things, as are creative ideas. Making jokes is, in
itself, a very creative activity, and develops the 'creative muscle'
needed to constantly innovate.

Empowerment

Once people are motivated to be creative, they need the environment in
which they can be creative.

Freedom

People empowered to act in ways that are not tightly constrained by
narrow job descriptions and management oversight. They have the personal
freedom of choice and resource that gives them true authority to achieve
the challenge they have been given.

Empowerment has been slated and abused, for example where the power is
retained by managers whilst individuals are asked to achieve things
without the power to act. Done well, however, it truly delegates power and
the freedom to choose what to do and how to do it within a significant
part of people's jobs.

Time

Discovering and developing ideas takes time. They need to incubate in
your subconscious for a while, like hatching an egg or a dastardly plan.
When people are tightly constrained, working a full nine-to-five (or more)
job, then they will not have the ability to go beyond basic ideas, which
in their base state are usually not valuable, but would be with a certain
amount of developmental effort.

When people have a certain amount of unallocated time in their
timetables, then if they feel challenged and feel freedom to act, then
they will use that time productively to develop those ideas. Some
companies deliberately leave a proportion of time, even up to 10% or more
(and particularly in some parts of the organization) in which ideas may be
developed.

Support

When I have spent time and freedom in working to achieve the challenges
I have found, then I will at some time reach the stage when I need further
help, for example to allocate additional resources for development or in
presenting the idea to people who may not be that ready to change their
entrenched viewpoint.

In these situations, the person developing the idea needs the gravitas,
the authority, the wider capability of more senior managers. In fact the
more valuable the idea, the more support it is likely to need, as it may
lead to entire changes in direction for the whole company.

Dynamism

Energy

Getting an idea from first notion to final product can be a long and
arduous process. This requires a dynamic environment in which people are
energized and constantly pushing forward. You can walk into many
workplaces and feel the lack of energy and enthusiasm, whilst others have
a definite, almost palpable buzz about them.

Buzz and energy comes from the leaders of the organization. This
includes the formal management and informal social leaders. People look to
these leaders for cues in how they behave. If the leader is full of energy
and enthusiasm, then this emotion will 'infect' others and the motivation
will spread through the organization.

Conflict

Ideas in action almost always bump into other ideas as well as natural
conservatism that seeks to preserve the status quo. People attach
themselves to idealistic positions and will act to defend them, sometimes
by pre-emptively attacking what they see as threats.

A climate where conflict is allowed, enables these felt challenges to
be voiced and for people to argue their cases. In a creatively supporting
climate, the conflict is mostly about the problems of the organization and
the viability of ideas, and is most certainly not about personalities and
the value of different characters. When conflict turns to personal attack,
then ideas and their value go out of the window.

Creating healthy conflict requires both an openness to challenge and
then a focus on the problem, not the people. A respect for the individual
thus is a fundamental element of creative cultures.

Debate

Conflict and debate are very close, and again the basic concern is to
focus first on the idea. In debate, the pros and cons of ideas are
discussed openly and challenges are welcomed and analyzed to see what
additional benefits they may bring.

Debates can also go on across boundaries of time and space, and
thinking about an idea can engage an entire company.

Openness

Experimentation

It is one thing to think up a idea, it is another to put it into
practice. Ideas that are not explored and experimented with will either
never see the light of day or may well fail on their first outing.

An experimenting culture has a strong bias for action in trying things
out. It does not expect things to work first time but it does expect to
learn through careful trials and subsequent analysis.

Experimental companies often extend this culture out into the
marketplace. They do many trials with customers. They release many
different products to see what sells and what does not.

Trust

Trust is the bedrock of human interaction. If I do not trust others
then I will not believe them and will put a lot of my effort into
protecting myself from their potential attacks or callous lack of concern.

In the development of ideas, trust is needed on both sides of the
house. The person with the idea must feel they can speak their minds
without fear of criticism or punishment. The person on the other side also
needs to trust that the person with the idea has the company's best
interests at heart and will not abandon their other work in the sole
pursuit of a very shaky idea.

Trust thus has to develop across the organization. It is a fragile
thing, that when lost through betrayal of trust is not easily restored,
and thus needs very careful management.

Risk

Offering ideas and trying out experiments requires the ability and
motivation to take risks. Individuals and the entire company need to be
able to stick their necks out and 'give it a go'. Personal risk is thus
reduced so people can be open and experimental.

Rather than blind risks, successful cultures manage these in a way that
takes a realistic view of the real exposure of the company. Big risks are
mitigated carefully. Small risks are recognized as such and may more
easily done as 'blinders' to see what happens. Risk and potential reward
are thus balanced and managed carefully as a single unit.

See also

Ekvall, G. (1971), Creativity at the work
place, Stockholm: Swedish Council for Personnel Administration